You’re always learning. The problem is, sometimes you stop and think you understand the world. This is not correct. The world is always moving. You never reach the point you can stop making an effort.

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

The big question about how people behave is whether they’ve got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard.

Between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four, I must have read a whole library.

Self-worth comes from one thing – thinking that you are worthy.

I’m selfish.

Honor thy error as a hidden intention.

I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.

The question of sexual dominance can exist only in the nightmare of that soul which has armed itself, totally, against the possibility of the changing motion of conquest and surrender, which is love.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That’s not a guess, it’s a guarantee. With pride, it’s not a matter of ‚if‘ we will fall, but ‚when.‘ There are no exceptions.

I just really believe people have to get hungry. I think maybe what we need to do, instead of trying to stuff our beliefs down people’s throats, is just pray for them to really be hungry and to see their neediness.

I’m an emotional person. Sometimes I can’t help it.

Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.

In ‚Gran Torino,‘ I play a guy who’s racially offensive. But he learned. It shows that you’re never too old to learn and embrace people that you don’t understand to begin with. It seems like nobody else got that message, I guess.

I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I’ll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me.

I am a writer of books in retrospect. I talk in order to understand; I teach in order to learn.

I’m different than most people. When I cross the finish line of a big race, I see that people are ecstatic, but I’m thinking about what I’m going to do tomorrow. It’s as if my journey is everlasting, and there is no finish line.

Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.

I understand aggressiveness in only one way: being prepared to hurt yourself, not someone else.

No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

When you are spiritually connected, you are not looking for occasions to be offended, and you are not judging and labeling others. You are in a state of grace in which you know you are connected to God and thus free from the effects of anyone or anything external to yourself.

Education can become a self-fulfilling activity, liberating in and of itself.

You can either be a host to God, or a hostage to your ego. It’s your call.

Unlike some politicians, I can admit to a mistake.

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.

Control and surrender have to be kept in balance. That’s what surfers do – take control of the situation, then be carried, then take control. In the last few thousand years, we’ve become incredibly adept technically. We’ve treasured the controlling part of ourselves and neglected the surrendering part.

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

The personal ego already has a strong element of dysfunction, but the collective ego is, frequently, even more dysfunctional, to the point of absolute insanity.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

You don’t lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.

Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.

There is no sin except stupidity.

It is hard sometimes to always be at the centre of attention, but when you talk about me you also have to talk about the climate.

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

On Sundays when I speak, I hopefully give somebody something that they can use the next day at work or at home.

Doubt grows with knowledge.

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

Education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.

God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving. If he gives us the gift of Christmas, it is because we all have the ability to understand and receive it.

Science is increasingly answering questions that used to be the province of religion.

I don’t see myself as ever being like anybody else.

Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.

It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.

It took Simone a long time to understand why people want Daddy’s autograph. I’d tell her, and my wife would tell her, too, ‚People see Daddy in the movies, and they are excited to meet him.‘ But she couldn’t really grasp it.

Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die; do not outlive yourself.

I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

Listen with the intent to understand, not the intent to reply.

Self-talk, for me, has been the biggest thing in my life. A lot of us have a dialogue that is crap. It’s a crappy dialogue. We live in a world right now that is very external. Everything is very on the surface. Superficial. Everything. And what we’re telling ourselves is what we see on TV.

The highest result of education is tolerance.

Failure is not an option. Everyone has to succeed.

I think it’s OK to be confident in yourself.

I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.

There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone.

The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain.

If you understand the universe, you control it, in a way.

True self is non-self, the awareness that the self is made only of non-self elements. There’s no separation between self and other, and everything is interconnected.